Misty Mountain
by detrametal
Summary: a small look at the mind of the cloud based off a the Misty Mountain. what lurks inside a mind when nobody knows who you are? sorry for uping the rating but some scenes are definitely mature
1. Chapter 1

_Far over the misty mountains cold_

_To dungeons deep and caverns old_

_We must away ere break of day_

_To find our long forgotten gold_

_The pines were roaring on the height_

_The winds were moaning in the night_

_The fire was red it flaming spread_

_The trees like torches blazed with light_

_-Misty Mountain, The Hobbit_

Viper sat in the plush chair looking over the body Skull. The others were asleep. With the fire throwing uneven light on his body as it sat on the couch with twin gouges where he had taken a charging forklift in the chest. The dead man's body was healing. Her gaze turned introspective. What made him who he was?

She moved over and rested his head on her lap, blood splattered against her cloak from the hole between his eyes. She put a hand on either temple and over lapped her mind with his. Her mind was a dark forest filled with dreaded things, his mind a barren waste bathed in darkness with mountains that stabbed upward like a knife against god. She moved deeper into his mind. Smoke pored out of the ground and black sulfurous liquid blended in with the volcanic rock. This place had been blasted with heat once, the entire plane was scorched. Her first thought was rampant death, she revaluated, there was never life here. She pulled her mind out far enough to see the entirety. In his mind there was only one place where he could be hidden. Soon she found herself at a ruined place. White stone had fallen and been charred with fire, the castle was destroyed, all that could have survived would be deep within the foundation. She found stairs leading down, she conjured an orb of fire at her fingertips and took a breath against the waves of oppression coming from the dark pit. As she descended a deep hum surrounded her, it filled her with profound sadness, deeper than the ocean, darker than obsidian and crueler than love. On those narrow steps she crouched and wrapped her arms around her legs. Tears slid down delicate bone as she felt sorrow drown her. Her body slowly crawled down the stairs until she stood at the dungeon door, the only place standing in this picture of absolute destruction. One cell sat deep within the rock, bars tarnished with years of neglect and abuse. The acrid air carried its poisons to the occupant. This was the true Skull, a malnourished man with purple spike hair and scars melted into his body. The tattered rags that covered his legs were completely useless against the frosted air. The shackles that bound his hands to the wall were huge around his emaciated frame. The twenty year old body rested his back against the red hot rock and felt the flesh smoke and heard the crack as skin dried and shattered. He was a broken marionette, severed strings and broken limbs, cracked paint and chipped wood. He saw her for the first time and hissed into the frozen inferno of air, it carried with it a memory.

_A baby still in his new blue blanket opened his eyes to see his mother peacefully smiling down on him, in her hand she held something he didn't recognize. He squirmed, she wasn't holding him, a glint caught his eye. She held the double headed axe high in the air. The stump the baby sat on was dyed red as the newborn's blood soaked in. His mother picked up the two parts of her baby and cradled them and lulling the pain away with a song. Soon he would wake and the cycle of torment would start._

Viper jerked back from Skull and gasped and took deep breaths until the heat of the fire gave her some measure of peace. Uni had rushed in when she heard Viper's scream. The questions the sky asked were muted by Viper's mind rushing, filled with questions. The illusionist touched her forehead to the dead's and dove back in.

Staring at Skull his purple eyes held only hatred and contempt. With the flick of a boney finger the prisoner rolled his head to the other side. A deep breathing came from behind. She turned to find a huge dragon staring at her with unblinking predatory eyes. Irises made of every color glared into her soul as a sharply angled muzzled pushed past her. White scales brushed against her skin, sharp edges cutting until the head reached the broken and battered body. The mouth opened and the stench of pure horror burned her. Without even seeing the mouth she could feel the fear. Skull's eyes gazed past the dragon and to her. With a finger he wrote on the burning stone and smoke whispered a message to her

_You should not be here_

She opened her mouth but no air entered her lungs. Another memory pushed her out of this world.

_A black shadow pushed him into the device. Iron maiden and copper bull together, the sharpened spikes pierced his body and the fire underneath heated the inside until his blood boiled away leaving a dried husk of a man. Twelve hours later he was healed and had been placed back inside._

Again she was pushed out by the physical memory of the pain, deep and unyielding. She looked and saw her sky's scared look. She put her arm around the tiny girl "it's alright. I'm just trying to help. All I want to do is look at his mind. Shh, it's alright"

The little girl sobbed "you were crying so much and you wouldn't answer me when I called you" Uni pushed her tear stained face deeper into Viper's cloak.

Viper tighter her hold on the girl "when I'm looking at a mind I'm not here, I'm in here" and she tapped her head. "and there are very bad things in here, I want to see why" and she put a hand on Skull's forehead. A faint heat traveled up her arm, Skull was alive but in a coma. He was healing. She leaned down to touch his forehead until Skull's hand caught hers and jerked it away.

The dead sat up and glared at the illusionist. He stood up and patted the little sky with a bloody hand "my mind is my own. A prison in which I am jailer and jailed. No one may look at my mind without learning it through me first. My nightmare is mine."

Each step the immortal took left a bitter taste in the illusionist's mouth. Each step was a confirmation of the hopelessness of the one they called Skull. The group knew nothing about their cloud, his name, his circumstances, his life, none of it. To them he was a acid, a thing nothing touched. To his family he was a medicine, a sparsely used tool meant to be rid of a problem then put away so that it wouldn't hurt the owner. But he was an toxic blossom, a bloom that would capture any eye, a poison so strong a touch of the feathery petals would place you in death.

A cloud of oleander, a single beautiful massacre.


	2. Chapter 2

**This was an unplanned continuation of Misty Mountain, and seeing as I forgot to put "completed" on the status I decided to just put this with it…sorry the rating got bumped up but I needed to do it so I could have a couple of the scenes in here. **

**Again I do not own.**

**And now from the depravity that brought you all the other crap I've wrote…**

* * *

_All Madness needs a sheath_

_Lest it cut the hand of god and wound the hearts of men_

_For no blade is keener than that of Insanity_

_the one all things fear_

Viper slowly opened the door, the purple walls hadn't changes since Verde decided that he should look into everybody's rooms. She glanced at the door, heavy and soundproof, all the defenses had been deactivated. Perhaps it was his apology for that time? She sat at the head of his bed and slowly shifted him off of his pillows and onto her lap. She ran her finger tips over his face, memorizing his features in the dim light of a candle set in the corner. Amethyst orbs watched as he turned into the warmth of her body. A romanticist would say it was love, others believed it was a sense of guilt for all the years they had neglected him. It was something far deeper and far darker that lay in every mind: curiosity. Faust had sold his soul to Mephistopheles for knowledge, thousands had been killed and millions more would be sacrificed for this ever hungry god. He had forbidden her from doing exactly what she was doing, she took a deep breath and pressed her palms onto his temples and dove into his mind.

* * *

She looked around at the depths of his mind and felt a sense of dread at the molten plains that she found herself on. The dark acrid smoke blocked out any celestial body that would have given off light, if one existed in this god-forsaken place. She walked to the ruins where he had once been with a sense of terror, like walking though water it was a force that physically held her back. She felt she was disturbing something, her very presence her was breaking some law that held this world intact. The two large stone slabs that formed the door to his prison were closed, her thin fingers pulled against the unyielding stone until they grated open. Like Pandora's box out rushed thousands of memories so quickly she only caught glimpses.

_Here sat Skull as a child, his back was against the wall as his father's bare feet entered view and he swung a metal bar again and again until Skull's head hit the floor with a wet smack…_

She gasped and gripped her head as more and more swam by.

_Skull sat on the floor, eyes empty. A chain sat about his neck and a whip lashed down on his back again and again, then he howled in pain as the man who put him into slavery went at him for a satisfaction that no little boy could give…_

She stepped away from the doors as the winds of thought died down to a hurricane of pain and memories best left long forgotten. This prison of his mindscape hadn't changed. the pressure of sorrow and hopelessness still pressed down on her as if she was Atlas, only there was something new in the air. Hotter than the stone his back was against yet colder than his face when she had first come into this world, it caught her breath and made her freeze.

Anger.

His anger filled the air. She reached the place where he lay and saw the dragon plunge his face into the broken cell like a vulture into a corpse. The sound of flesh being shredded by those teeth filled the air, that white menace turned to look at her, it's muzzle stained crimson with the blood of the captor. Something in it's eyes made her stop. She didn't understand this place, nobody tortured themselves in their own mind…unless he had some deep guilt that she didn't know about. A darker though entered her mind.

Or he was repressing something. Like the beast that nearly killed Verde, the beast that had been calmed only by the dead. The one that was now awaking.

She could hear it, those brittle wrists shattered the iron rings that held him to the stone, with one hand, with strength that wasn't possible, he wiped away the corroded and pitted bars.

Then she could see it. He stepped out and the dragon leapt at him. He stopped it with one hand on each jaw.

Then he pulled.

The dragon ripped into two pieces that fell to the ground with a dull flop. He turned to face her, his emaciated body held a feral smile like a hunter had just come across his prey sleeping. His eyes held a psychosis that was deeper than anything she had ever seen. She was like a baby bird when the snake climbs into the nest, until he stepped forward. She turned and raced up the stairs with a crazed laughter following her, floating around her like a swarm of maddened bees. She ran across the plains until she was thrown into the ground. She fought but was trapped underneath him, he grabbed her arms and tore them off with the same strength that had killed the dragon, as she screamed out her pain he laughed and ran a long tongue over the bleeding flesh. He dug his fingers into her shoulders until they tore though flesh and blood ran out of the ten wounds. He giggled like a child and revealed his teeth. 64 points of hardened enamel sharpened to an edge that would have cut into his jaw in any sane universe. He nuzzled her neck for a moment before slicing them across her throat and biting deep. As she felt her blood drain away she found the fear to push her out of his mind and straight into hell.

* * *

Her hands jumped away from his body as she looked around at the world of reality. He slowly opened his eyes, she hadn't escaped, they held the same feral glint of the world she had just fled. She ran to the door until he grabbed her arm and dragged her back to the bed, she screamed and cried but nobody would hear her. He gripped her wrists and gave a sharp tug and she instantly stilled as the implications became clear: _try to run and I'll rip them off…_ but she couldn't help but try to squirm when he pinned her wrists above her head and ripped her cloak off her prone form. She tried defending herself with illusions but he never noticed them. She tried to fight against him until he ground her wrists together and two tears fell from the pain.

His eyes slowly took in her form. Slim form fitting black slacks were covered by a slightly too large black tee over skin so soft she would bruise at the slightest touch-this roused the predator in him. The change in his eyes made those amethyst orbs tremble in fear and whip her body back and forth leaving a mane of shoulder length dark azurite hair stinging his face. He grabbed her shirt and ripped it off leaving the crying woman beneath him praying that the Skull she knew would get a hold of himself. As he ripped off her pants she could only do one thing.

"S-skull s-stop, please!" she gasped between sobs "I-I'll do whatever you want s-so just don't ra-AAHH!" she screamed as he ripped off her bra and bit harshly against the tender flesh. He pulled back and saw the thin trickle of blood on her breast. With a hiss of delight he bit her thigh leaving four trails of blood running down her leg as he ripped of her underwear. He pulled down his shorts and pierced her. His thin boney hips bashed against her like a hammer, he had no mercy nor did her make any move to do anything other than rape her.

Skull, no the Beast, wanted her pain, it's fingers dragged sharp ragged ends across her thin body and bit her until she bled from dozens of small wounds and hit her until her entire body was sore. She tried calling for help, it earned her a blow, she tried being silent, another blow, whimpers, another. It wanted her crying and begging for it to stop.

When it filled her with it's essence it shuddered and collapsed on top of her she felt the dark miasma retreat and a pitiful groan escaped Skull's mouth. He looked up at her and dropped his head into his hands and bawled. She dragged the bloody blanket over her body and allowed herself a small smile, no matter how bad she felt physically Skull most assuredly suffered mentally exponentially.

He disappeared into his bathroom, she tried to stand but her legs nearly gave out and she waited as he appeared with a full blown medical kit, not just a first aid but a master kit with which he could have done surgery. He tended her wounds without meeting her gaze as he cried. His fingers slowly rubbed ointment on her bruises and dabbed at the bloody marks with a soft towel and tenderly applied bandages. The pain started floating away when his fingers, filled with an anti-miasma, treated her body and her stress disappeared.

As he got to those along parts of her body that should have been covered he blushed and stuttered "I-I'm sorry b-but I don't think you want m-me looking at those…"

She had closed her eyes and lain back as he had worked, his fingers had been soft and careful, much like a parent tending to their child. She gave him a small smile "go ahead. I don't mind." he blushed but slowly dabbed the blood away from her body. She closed her eyes and leaned against the pillows as his palm rubbed the ointment on the bruises across her stomach.

He hesitated after she moved the blanket off her breasts, they had suffered quite a bit at his hands. He looked at her face, she never opened her eyes and he timidly started applying the ointment to them. She heard him start damning himself his words were harsh and toxic, another thing they hadn't seen until Verde decided that he needed to 'uncover' their secrets. She felt a cold drop land on her leg, she opened her eyes to see Skull moving to sit at the edge of the bed crying softly into his hands. She slowly crawled over to him and rested a palm on his shoulder, he jerked away. His voice was soft and filled with self-loathing and sorrow "d-don't touch me…I'm a monster, I-I just need to die"

She understood now what his mind was.

The him that was shackled in that cage was the Beast, the one that had done this to her, the dragon was him trying to hold himself in check. The Beast was a part of him that he was trying to stop from doing any harm, and like a tank under too much pressure it would rupture and destroy whenever it got the chance. The land itself was from the experiences that forced him to create such a Beast and lock away such vital parts of himself. Like love and joy. Two feelings that he had never expressed. In fact he really had never shown emotions, he cried when he was beaten and seemed full of himself. But they were hollow, like a mask but he never felt these things. She pressed a finger to her chin, who was Skull? Was he the beast that had hurt her or was he the man who tenderly tried to repent with his strong but tender fingers or something she had not yet seen?

She sat behind him and wrapped her arms around his thin waist, behind the thin shirt and shorts he was nearly as emaciated as the him that was in the cage, he jerked away until he realized that he was trapped. She pulled him against her "shh…it was a part of you that needs help…it's okay"

His sobbing chuckle cut her off "I'm mad, this entire thing is my fault. And I can't do a damn thing about it"

She hated how he conveniently forgot that she had done something he had forbidden her from doing. He only blamed himself…he had warned her and these were the consequences. She looked back at herself, how did she contain her madness?

Ah, that was it, she had it for so long she had hidden it. She spoke softly like trying to calm a scared animal "Skull…" his large purple eyes looked into hers before dropping down to the floor. It had scared her. His eyes held so much pain. He truly hated himself. "Skull, I-it's not your fault"

He growled "of course it is, look a-at what I did to you…" his voice faded off as he realized what he was doing, and what he had done.

Her voice caught him from the dark thoughts that he was following "all madness needs a sheath…let me be yours…" he turned to look at her, she stared at him with those eyes that had seen so much. She held the blanket to her form and gave a small smile.

He gave a strangled laugh "I can't" he stood and grabbed a pair of pants and walked out as she tried to stand on abused legs. He left her there, after his footsteps faded she did the only thing that could let her know who Skull, the real Skull was. She read those blood stained walls. That night something changed in her, a small sense of awe filled her. He was older than them and had taken on so many personas, the little child he had been with Izzy had only been one. She looked though his desk and found several books so old that she was afraid that they would turn to dust at her touch.

* * *

When she had snuck out of his room at 3 in the morning she was seen by Lal Mirch. With a screech that had woken up the others she had promptly been whisked to her room for clothes than to the kitchen table and bombarded with questions. Thankfully the bleeding had been stopped. She tried to answer their questions but finally snapped after nearly two hours of questions. Then Verde noticed it "where's Skull?" than they realized something. He was gone, she had walked out of his room bloody and he wasn't there. The level of fury in the room rose as they connected the two things.

To this she said only one thing, but it had the effect she was after, she made eye contact with all of them and calmly said "this is between me and him, if you interfere I will haunt you with illusions until you can't even think without whimpering in a corner like a beaten dog. This was my fault. Understand?" even Reborn nodded at the usually quiet mist's outburst.

Later that day the roar of his bike entered the air and she let out a small sigh. He entered and ignored the rage and hate filled glare of the others and went straight to his room. After a while she entered his room to find him face down on his bed "where did you go?"

He didn't move for a long time and in the silence he answered "I took a ride"

She crossed her arms "is that all you did…Fenrisúflr?" he spun around and stared at her in shock.

He slowly sat up and locked eyes with her "…I gave up that name long before you were born"

She nodded gravely "I know. I read them"

He pinched the bridge of his nose and rolled back over "…please, leave. I can't stand what I did. Please" she walked over and sat on the edge and stroked the back of his head.

"…is Fenrisúflr a name or title?" she slowly ran a hand over his gear, he stood and walked into the bathroom.

She heard the shower start to flood hot water over his body "I can't remember"

She let out an incredulous laugh "you can't remember? How do you forget if it was your name?"

His ragged voice whispered over the splash of water "it was so long ago…if it was a title everyone else started calling me it and eventually I forgot too…"

She nodded even though she knew he couldn't see it "…what do you do for release?"

A harsh chuckle echoed though the door "I have no release at one point I had almost considered working for the Carcassa release, but they were too good of people to do that to…since they're gone I don't even have that option anymore…"

The illusionist thought for a moment "Varia has no Cloud…maybe you'd join?"

* * *

Tsuna looked at the two in front of him and nodded "the Varia does need a stable Cloud…Skull, you'd be working under Xanxus but you'd report on their conditions to me, is that okay?" Skull nodded. The Decimo walked around his desk and hugged the thin man "then welcome to the Vongola. Let's go see your Commanding officer now"

Tsuna had taken the extremely dangerous step of moving the Varia into the Vongola mansion under the premise that they were independent but still family, not to mention that with his child on the way he wanted all the possible protection for his little daughter. They had agreed because a very pregnant Chrome Sawada had knocked…and Xanxus thought he was scary!

Now they entered the common room of the Varia wing to see the circus inside. Viper walked over to the throne where Xanxus sat watching Squalo and Bel argue over something trivial and tapped his shoulder and he looked and saw the two visitors "TRASH, shut the hell up!" and they turned and gestured to the two at the door.

Tsuna stepped in and smiled at the group before making some small talk. Squalo, unfortunately, wasn't patience "VOIIII! Decimo! who's this rat?!"

Tsuna sighed and realized he had been doing that a lot more recently "this is Skull, one of the Arcobaleno, for the time he's going to be the Cloud of the Varia"

Xanxus had changed a lot in the seven years since the ring fight, oh, don't worry he's still a rude ass but he's mellowed some…maybe and he's gotten to trust Tsuna. That trust was earned exactly the same way as Hibari's: a fight till one person dropped, time- 4 days and 13 minutes. Said boss of Varia growled "Tsuna, this shrimp couldn't keep up with us, as I recall he 'the weakest of the Arcobaleno' and a 'Lackey'"

A furious growl issued forth from the illusionist, she stomped over and whispered something to Xanxus' ear, an eyebrow lifted, than a small smirk, than a laugh and finally he looked at Skull's deadpan face, the only one he wore now "I'll accept you" Tsuna sighed in relief "only if you can beat one of us in a fight" the Boss slapped his face, so much for this going over easy…

The possible applicant scanned the room and pointed at the two most lethal people in the group "you two, against me" Xanxus looked at his second and laughed and the long hair man and his boss went into the training room.

Viper knew this was going to turn out in his win, she didn't need her psychic powers to tell that Skull had killed far scarier people in his time on this planet.

It started when Xanxus ripped his guns from their holsters faster than the other assassins could see, Skull was faster, as the Varia boss willed the guns to chest height Skull grabbed them and kicked Xanxus in the sternum hard enough that he lost his grip on the guns and hit the wall, Skull rushed towards the downed man only to be stopped by his second, who was evaded without thought and Skull smashed the boss into the wall, knocking him out cold. Then Skull turned to Squalo.

Squalo did realize that he couldn't win but a swordsman never retreats, he faces every challenge with honor and dignity. Squalo felt his arms shake as he glanced to the rest of the Varia who stood silently watching. They felt it too, the overwhelming battle experience that this man in front of them had, his deadpan face and natural fluidity of his movements gave the message: I've been in fights that you have never seen. They all felt something. Fear. Squalo didn't see what happened, Skull smashed the side of his head against Squalo's and the shark slumped to the ground out cold.

Skull looked at his work and walked out of the room. The Varia stood in silence, their two most deadly members had been beaten like dogs. Tsuna had a microscopic smirk as he pulled Squalo and Xanxus to their feet as they slowly woke up.

Xanxus said only two words and Viper went to find this man she was slowly becoming attached to.

* * *

Skull let his back touch the soft material of his bed, his head lulled to the side so that the mirror gazed back at him. Who was that in the mirror? A demon? What did it want? His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door as the illusionist opened it without waiting for a response. She leapt onto his relaxed form and smiled. She sat on his legs, straddling him "Boss said you're in…"she hugged him and sat back up quickly.

Skull's impassive face never changed but from his night stand he took a dark unadorned Churchwarden pipe and filled it with the small leafs that he favored. She still sat there smiling, she new he only lit a pipe in celebration, he had written that in his books that "the small fire in the bowl fills me with a sense of accomplishment, I wouldn't be able to tarnish that feeling with the sorrow of defeat. I only light it after I have done something worth doing well"

She hugged him again, something about this man made her feel alive, he would openly admit that he had been poor for the majority of his life, he had survived without money and perhaps, it made her feel like she could live without it as well.

His breathy ragged voice caught her attention "ya' know if someone were to walk in they might get the wrong impression…" and lifted his free hand towards the door. She looked down and blushed before hopping off and moving to one of the chairs sitting around the room.

A knock and a muffled "sir, I have a package for you" Skull got up and opened the package.

Everyone in the mansion heard a scream.

Pure terror, rage, hatred and anguish.

Rushing to the room they would find Skull cradling a huge orb to his chest as he rocked back and forth on his knees. A hastily scrawled note still sat in the box

_We have your pet._

_Need any more proof?_

With red and black stains on the once crisp paper.

Reborn spoke and it chilled them to the bone "O-Oodako?"

A voice of two with random hissing reflections lilted up and down exited Skull's mouth while he cried over his friend's torn eye "wwhhhhat will you do SSSkulll? Willlll you let them take himmmmm from you?"

Skull's broken voice answered himself "n-no, I-I can't let them keep him"

The voice let out a dark chuckle from it's high-low voice "will you killll themssss?" Skull nodded with a sob " tttttthan out of the way, you CATTTTLLLLEEEE! and the crowd parted to let Skull go and kill his enemies, for once with his Darkness.

* * *

**I suggest you guys look up "The Darkness, the voice of the Darkness" on google or something, it's the inspiration for the Beast's voice  
**


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